Highwood hopes to break own pumpkin record

October 08, 2012|By Michael Holtz, Chicago Tribune reporter

Sam Motew, 10, from left, his father, Michael, and friend Jackson Miller, 11, join other volunteers at Pumpkin Fest in Highwood last year as they broke the Guinness record for lighting the most pumpkins. The city is looking to break the record again this year. (Keri Wiginton, Chicago Tribune)

Few small towns are as competitive about Halloween as Highwood, where residents will carve jack-o'-lanterns by the tens of thousands this week with the hope of surpassing their own Guinness world record.

John Kindseth, an assistant to the city manager, said the city of 5,000 people is aiming to light 32,000 this year. They're hoping to keep at bay Keene, N.H., which first set the record in 1996 and is aiming to unseat Highwood with its own carving carnival.

Armed with power drills and ice cream scoops, volunteers will gut and carve pumpkins as part of the town's three-day pumpkin festival, an event that attracted tens of thousands last year.

The jack-o'-lanterns will be lit around City Hall on the evening of Oct. 20, the festival's culmination.

Highwood residents also hope to set world records in two additional categories: most pumpkins carved simultaneously and longest line of pies. The most pumpkins carved at once was 965, and the longest line of pies stretched 530 feet 8 inches, according to the festival's website.

Kindseth said Guinness officials would be in town this year to judge the record-breaking attempt in person. Last year, the city provided them with video and photos they used to confirm the record.